A feasibility study of damage tracking through the diffusive communication of wireless sensors

Minjoong Jeong, Jong Goo Bae, Bong Hwan Koh

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to investigate the feasibility of wireless sensors in the development of an autonomous structural health monitoring system. A collaborative searching algorithm is developed such that massively deployed wireless sensor nodes in a structure conveniently comprise a group and constitute a damage-surveillance perimeter. Wireless sensors in this perimeter spontaneously activate themselves for damage-tracking tasks by networking with neighboring sensors. When the damage-sensitive parameter that is measured by a sensor node exceeds a certain threshold, the process of damage-tracking begins. The proposed damage-tracking algorithm does not require any type of global control. Instead, sensor-networking and a pairwise-comparison algorithm that is implemented at each sensor node allows collaborative decision-making for tracking the changes, such as local strain, in structural properties. The extant autonomous, damage-tracking algorithms have been demonstrated through only numerical simulations for a single-damage case. Here, the study is further expanded to address the problem of simultaneously tracking multiple instances of damage in three-dimensional space by using improved algorithms for sensor networking. An event-based task-executing functionality of individual sensor nodes is successfully implemented and verified using four wireless strain sensors that are mounted on a cantilevered beam structure. Experimental results reveal that the overall capability of wireless sensor nodes is functional enough to enable a wireless-based autonomous structural health monitoring system.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)23-29
Number of pages7
JournalInternational Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing
Volume11
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2010

Keywords

  • Damage detection
  • Diffusive communication
  • Wireless sensor network

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